HCII2009 Program for Student Volunteers

The HCII2009 Program for Student Volunteers gives university students from around the world the opportunity to attend and contribute to one of the most prestigious conferences in the field of computing and human-computer interaction.

HCII2009 Student Volunteers will interact closely with researchers, academics and practitioners from various disciplines, meet other students from around the world, and promote personal and profession growth.

HCI International 2009 – Keynote Speaker

We are happy to announce that Daniel J. Rosenberg is the keynote speaker for HCI International 2009.

Daniel Rosenberg is a Senior Vice President at SAP, the largest Enterprise Applications Software company in the world. In this capacity he directs user experience design and usability activities across all SAP product lines. His team is also responsible for UCD methodology definition, corporate UI standards and Accessibility. Prior to joining SAP he was Vice President of R&D for UI Design at Oracle Corporation. Previous corporate positions include the role of User Interface Architect for Borland International and Ashton-Tate. While at Borland, he designed the first Windows GUI for Borland C++, as well as many other early innovative product user interfaces for personal computers.

He has authored or co-authored many well known publications in the HCI field, including "Human Factors in Product Design" (Elsevier 1991), as well as chapters in the original "Handbook of Human Computer Interaction" (Elsevier 1988), "Coordinating User Interfaces for Consistency" (Academic Press 1989) and "Usability in Practice" (Academic Press 1994). He is also one of the founding editors of ACM’s NetWorker magazine, a publication that focuses on how the Internet has changed the nature of work.

The title of his Keynote talk is "Sustainability: Lean and Green. The next decade of HCI opportunity".

Abstract.

The majority of the world’s gross domestic product (GDP) is managed within today’s information technology infrastructure. At the same time, the current global economic crisis illustrates many shortcomings in the design of these same systems and of the business processes they execute. Even before the emergence of this specific crisis, a macro-tend was underway reaching for improved sustainability and green IT within the industrial sector. This trend will only accelerate in the coming decade, as both government and private capital flows into projects and products as needed to renovate many of our core systems such as transportation, communication, manufacturing, IT and agriculture. A convergence is taking place which combines the goals of GDP growth with sustainability, and thus forms a revised set of guiding design principles as well as funding criteria in the effort to restart global economy.

An old Chinese proverb states "In challenge always exists opportunity". The HCI profession is much more mature and capable today than when many of these original systems were developed. Ergonomic approaches for lean manufacturing and User Centered Design within agile software development are part of our shared lexicon and skill base, as papers at this conference demonstrate.

We will all be called upon to participate in the sustainability movement, but how well prepared are we to deliver professionally? How will we apply HCI to new problems such as creating a global standard for tracking and trading carbon credits? Can we suggest which areas are most appropriate for investment and which approaches within them are most promising based on our knowledge of human capabilities?

With a decade of re-engineering ahead of us, this talk will introduce an overall framework for understanding sustainability principles and opportunities, and suggest how HCI methods can increase the probability of success in meeting these next generation challenges.

HCI International 2009 - Accommodation

The Town and Country Resort & Convention Center is recommended as the main hotel of the Conference. Offering 1000 spacious guest rooms and suites, the Town and Country, as a luxury resort, provides the ultimate in comfort with modern accommodations in two ten story towers, or sprawling one- and two-story garden bungalows.

A number of rooms have been reserved to be allocated on a first-come-first-served basis and reduced hotel rates have been agreed with the Hotel. These rates are valid for all Conference participants for the duration of the Conference as well as for 3 additional days, before and / or after the Conference. Early reservation is highly recommended.

HCI International 2009 - Exhibition

In the context of the HCI International 2009 Conference Exhibition, exhibitors will have an ideal opportunity to exhibit their products and services to an international audience of over 2,300 researchers, academics, professionals and users in the field of HCI. Attendees will be able to examine state-of-the- art HCI technology and interact with manufacturing representatives, vendors, publishers, and potential employers. More information about the Exhibition can be found at the Conference website

"The Universal Access Handbook" edited by C. Stephanidis, currently in press with Taylor&Francis in the Book Series "Human Factors and Ergonomics" (Series editor: Prof. Gavriel Salvendy), reflects recent developments in the field of Universal Access in an effort to consolidate present knowledge and open new perspectives for the future.

In recent years, the field of Universal Access has made significant progress towards consolidating theoretical approaches, scientific methods and technologies, as well as exploring new application domains. Universal Access refers to the conscious and systematic effort to proactively apply principles, methods and tools of universal design, in order to develop Information Society Technologies which are accessible and usable by all citizens, including the very young and the elderly, as well as people with different types of disabilities, thus avoiding the need for a posteriori adaptations or specialized design. The requirement for Universal Access emerged in the early ‘90s from the growing impact of the fusion of the emerging technologies, and from the different dimensions of diversity, which are intrinsic to the emergence of the Information Society. These dimensions become evident when, for example, considering the broad range of user characteristics, the changing nature of human activities, the variety of contexts of use, the increasing availability and diversification of information and knowledge sources and services, and the proliferation of technological platforms. Since then, the field of Universal Access has made significant progress. The scope of investigation has broadened, more systematic investigations of users, contexts and technology diversity in the Information Society have been carried out, new methodological approaches have been elaborated, existing approaches have been embedded in the development of support tools, a wide variety of novel interaction techniques have emerged for supporting users diversity, and a plethora of applications and case studies putting to practice all the above have become available. Additionally, awareness and policy have also progressed to the point that now accessibility to the basic technological infrastructure is recognised by many as a fundamental human right.

"The Universal Access Handbook" is a collection of 61 Chapters, structured into nine parts, written by leading international authorities, affiliated to academic, research and industrial organizations. This Handbook provides a structured guide to professionals and practitioners working in the field, a comprehensive and interrelated collection of reference articles for academics and researchers, an indispensable source of information for interdisciplinary and cross-thematic study, an important educational tool in an increasingly globalized research and development environment, and a base line for further in-depth studies in the subject matter in the future.

Brief Book Review: "Attention: From Theory to Practice"

17 contributions of expert researchers reviewing all aspect of attention from theoretical to practical aspects constitute the book "Attention: From Theory to Practice". After 4 introductory chapters revising the theoretical and methodological issues (Part 1) and 4 chapters looking at emerging issues in applied attentions, authors provide an interesting coverage of the main applied areas. Attention in driving (multitasking and novice driver crashes (part III), attention and aging (part IV), attention is user interfaces (part V), attention and training (part VI) - each include two examples of attention in each fields. Part VII is looking at future direction of researches.

The excellent theoretical review chapters highlighting the work of pioneer researchers in the field, such as Wickens and Broadbent to just name a few and more recent researchers in one hand, and applied examples make this book a superb reading for all scholars practitioners and students in the field of Human-Computer Interaction.

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About HCI International NEWS

The HCI International NEWS is a newsletter that contains information about the HCI International 2009 Conference, book reviews, news from the field of HCI, as well as links to interesting articles and conferences. If you have any questions or comments, or if you would like to make a contribution, please contact the Editor, Dr. Abbas Moallem. The opinions that are expressed in this Newsletter are the sole responsibility of its authors and do not represent any institution or company.